Verreaux's Eagle

[Chris van Rooyen]

I captured this eagle coming in to land at the famous Giant's Castle hide in the Drakensberg mountains. The black bird against the light background presented problems, but the sweet light and 1/3 over-exposure helped to keep the blacks from underexposing completely.

Camera Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Date/Time: 2008:08:30 075:46
Shutter speed: 1/2000 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Exposure mode: Av
Exposure compensation: +1/3
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 1000
Focal length: 500mm

[Loukie Viljoen]

Awesome Chris, looking forward to another trip, Loukie&Julie

[Dan Walker]

Sweet bird. Great pose, light and background. Blacks look good. Awsome!

Dan

[Dan Brown]

Outrageous shot:eek:. All is good with this one. You might be able to improve the shot by adding some space at the bottom of the frame, but it's just great as is also.

[paul leverington]

Holy mackerel andy!! This is really perfect. The thing that rocks hard here is the light raking across at an angle giving definition to the feathering. Plus the cast shadow of his head on the wing. Fantastic photo!!

Paul

[Daniel Cadieux]

Fantastic photo for sure. Great wing and tail spreads. The BG colours rock! Do I see a dust bunny near the top (between wing and center)?

[Alfred Forns]

One fantastic image Chris !!

The eagle with its pose and detail is a thing of beauty but that bg just takes it way over the top !!!! Big Time Congrats !!!

[Gyorgy Szimuly]

Image of the week for sure :) Amazing image with this powerful landing action.
That is a pity I missed to see it when I was in South Africa. :(

Szimi

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great pose, composition and BG. I might only try to get more details in the blacks.

[Art Kornienko]

Killer light and beautiful wing positioning, stunning for sure, congrats.

[Chris van Rooyen]

Thanks for the comments guys:-)

[Arthur Morris]

Perfect as presented. Love the pose, the BKGR colors, the soft light, the U-W detail, and the angled dark streaks in the BKGR.

[Geurt Bloem]

Oh well done Chris, a sweet opportunity presented here by the eagle and well used.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Great pose, Comp, BG, light, exposure, detail and colors! Congratualitons!

[Linda Robbins]

Really stunning Chris! It doesn't get better....wonderful pose, soft light, and a killer background. The background diagonal streaks add a lot to this lovely image. Perfect!

[Deano]

A stunning image.

And I don't mean any disrespect, but it looks unreal.

Now how many times has someone said that about somebodies pictures since we all went digital?

[Chris van Rooyen]

Hi Deano, indeed it looks unreal. But if you know Giant's Castle you will recognise the background, the colours are indeed almost unreal when the first soft light of morning hits the mountain in the background:-)